DOCUMENTING THE GREY MAN is another found footage film. I wanted to state that right out because folks tend to be polarized on these types of films. Some hate the shaky hand held camera work or write found footage films off as the cheapest subgenre of horror films. Others, like myself, love the feeling of immersion found footage films exude and dive in like a kid in a swimming pool. As a kid, I was like that too, until I dove into a pool too shallow and scuffed the top of my head up damn good. Still, despite the depth or shallowness of the found footage film, I still find myself diving in, for better or worse. DOCUMENTING THE GREY MAN is not the most perfect found footage film. Director / writer Wayne Capps cheats every now and then when he supplies shots that occur without a camera man present in order to further the narrative to the next scene, but there are enough frightening scenes throughout to recommend to folks who like this type of film.

A team of actors decide to “act” like a paranormal investigation team and investigate (exploit) a family who claims to be haunted by a ghost in an old mansion in Pawley’s Island, South Carolina. They believe the house is haunted by the Grey Man, a local legend of a ghost who haunts the beaches and warns people about hurricanes before they hit. When the investigators show up, almost immediately they encounter bizarre phenomenon. The film is prefaced that everything we are seeing is footage released from actual police tapes and that what we are seeing is 100% authentic.

As I said before, there are scenes in DOCUMENTING THE GREY MAN that almost immediately make you realize that this isn’t actual footage. The film starts out with the entire crew sitting at a table. The lead “investigator” has set up cameras around the table, but the scene makes a series of cuts and close-ups that would require an additional cameraman to accomplish. Another scene occurs as the investigators are walking up to the home to meet the family for the first time that could not have been shot by anyone in the crew. These tiny blips in the logic shot me out of the film; luckily there are some extremely effective scenes that pulled me back in.

DOCUMENTING THE GREY MAN is strongest when it lets the scary events just occur. There is an especially creepy scene involving the crew happening upon a little girl levitating and another scene of a séance that goes horribly and bloodily wrong and yet another scene where one of the owners of the creepy house tearfully describes an encounter with an unknown entity. All of these scenes are the best in the film and most convincing.

Most of the performances in DOCUMENTING THE GREY MAN are pretty good. The holes in logic aside, there were scenes in this film that had my hairs raising. Though not the best in found footage horror, DOCUMENTING THE GREY MAN does have some moments of sheer horror. This is a can’t miss for fans of GHOST HUNTERS and other ghost investigator series on TV. You can find out when and where you can check out DOCUMENTING THE GREY MAN here!